Over a year after One Piece Odyssey ??was originally released worldwide, Switch users are finally getting an opportunity to visit Memoria and relive some of the series' most iconic moments.

Bandai Namco announced that One Piece Odyssey will be released on July 26 as a Deluxe Edition for Nintendo Switch. The Deluxe Edition includes two outfit sets and the Reunion of Memorias DLC, which tasks the Strawhat crew with escaping Memoria one final time. Also, The additional content pack adds stronger enemies and new ways to play thr?ough the base game.

One Piece Odyssey came out of nowhere in the best way possible. Over the past few years, most One Piece games have used the traditional battle combat found in the Pirate Warriors ser??ies, where you take on huge hordes of enem??ies with a sprinkling of exposition from the anime and manga.

Bandai Namco went a different direction and used turn-based combat for Odyssey, and One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda supported the project by introducing new monsters, characters, and new original storyline that ties into the Strawhat journey we all know and love. Without giving too much away, the RPG challenges players with taking on a new sort of threat, while also going back in time to revisit memorable One Piece islands such as ?Water 7, Alabasta, Marineford, and more.

Taking out waves of Marines never gets old in the Pirate Warriors series, but One Piece fans are in for a treat if they haven't experienced Odyssey yet. Bandai Namco did not reve?al a price tag f?or the Deluxe Edition or any details on when players can start pre-ordering the title.

The post One Pie?ce Odyssey is charting a course for Nintendo Switch this summer appeared first on Destructoid.

The Straw Hats are back

It looks like Luffy and the gang aren't quite done with their RPG escapades yet. Bandai Namco is working on a new story DLC for One Piece Odyssey called Reunion of Memories, and it's coming soon.

There's no indication of a date just yet, but today's teaser trailer lays out some of the narrative groundwork. Much like the story of One Piece Odyssey itself, Reunion of Memories looks to be diving back into the storied past of the manga series. Lim, the young woman from Waford who played a key role in Odyssey, looks to be the focal point agai?n, as the team is contending with a Dark Lim doppelganger.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LpM5Yc9-Io

In a message from the game's producer, Katsuaki Tsuzuki, it's said that one of the key points of this One Piece Odyssey DLC i?s the theme of "new hidden? story with bonds." It will also focus heavily on battles, and the team recommends clearing the main story before tackling the DLC.

There will also be some new characters that weren't in the main game. The full roster isn't being confirmed yet, but Tsuzuki says you may be surprised to find other characters "where you least expect them." More d??etails are on the way s?oon.

Additionally, since release, the team has been list?ening to ??feedback and player requests, some of which have already been implemented in patches since launch.

The quest never ends

One Piece is still one of those series that I'm aware of but have never really personally dug into. That said, Odyssey seems like it was an interesting exploration of the fiction, if nothing else. I certainly respect the effort to try and tell the tale in an RPG format.

For those hoping for deeper One Piece cuts in their Odyssey, I hope they g??et what they want when the Reunion of Memories DLC hits.

The post One Piece Odyssey is getting some st?ory DLC in Reunion of Memories appeared first on Destructoid.

A baby game, for babies

One Piece Odyssey is a very easy game. There's a good reason for that - despite its frequently thoughtful writing and near-constant horniness, One Piece is ultimately a series aimed at children. It makes sense that a One Piece vid?eo game would t?ry its best to remain accessible to its younger audience.

It also makes sense for older fans to hear "comically easy turn-based game" and immediately reach for the auto-battle button. Luckily, One Piece Odyssey has a great auto-battle system. As long as you're not actively avoiding combat, the computer?? will probably be able to get you through most fights (bosses included) without issue.

[caption id="attachment_358475" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

But I'm here to ask you to reconsider. Yes, auto-battle will get you through most of Odyssey's skirmishes, but if you have any love for turn-base?d RPGs, you owe it to yourself to check out this combat system.

Uncommon (and unnecessary) depth

I am saying this with full sincerity: One Piece Odyssey has the best turn-based combat since Shin Megami Tensei V. At first blush, it's got a pretty basic rock-paper-scissors type-matching system. Power fighters are strong against Speed opponents, Speed fighters are strong against Technique opponents, and Technique fighters are strong against Power opponents. There are also elemental attacks with their own rudimentary type chart, and a clever (if played-out) system where normal attacks build resources to execute special attacks. But Odyssey's g?reat strength lies in its positioning mechanics.

[caption id="attachment_358474" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

One Piece Odyssey features a fairly simple positioning system. There are a few different areas, and each party member and enemy is assigned to one of them. If there are no enemies in an area, then party members in that area can move to any other area without issue. If there are enemies in an area, then party members can only switch places with other party members who haven't acted yet. That means once you'??ve used one character, they can't move until the turn ends.

This leaves the door open for all sorts of interesting challenges. Say there are two areas full of Power enemies - for a good chunk of the game, you'll only have two Technique fighters, Zoro and Nico Robin. Zoro is stronger, so it's easy to wipe out all the enemies in one area, but Nico Robin's area of attack moves are pretty awful. You could send Luffy, a Power fighter, to?? her area to help out, but you might be leaving another area undefended, and another party member open to attack.

Brain teasing

Usually, the solution to these problems is pretty obvious. Luffy, for instance, can probably leave Robin to fend for herself - if she can't pull things off this turn, the generally low health bars on those enemies will be whittled down on the next turn, and most ene??mies deal pretty negligible damage. It's fun to try and min-max these turns, but it's never really rewarded. After all, the game really is a c??ake walk. If you wanted to ignore most of its systems and just press the "Attack" button, you would probably win 70% of the fights, and if you're thinking about type-matching at all, you'll almost never face a real roadblock.

[caption id="attachment_358476" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Sometimes, though, Odyssey will throw a special challenge your way. It's usually not too difficult on its own; "Beat [x] enemy with Chopper," "Clear the area before Us?opp is knocked out," something to that effect. But it turns the game on its head, particularly if you've been playing normally for a little while.

Here's an exa??mple - during one minor boss fight, I was asked to beat a boss with Luffy. This threw a wrench into my plans. Luffy is a Power fighter, and the boss was a Technique fighter, so I had the type disadvantage. That meant it was really tough to put a dent in its health bar with Luffy alone, so I whittled it down with a couple other party members while Sanji single-handedly defended another area. Eventually, I had it in a very frustrating spot. One attack from Luffy probably wouldn't have killed it, but an attack from anyone else absolutely would have. This is when I remembered Trick Balls, the craftable consumables that serve almost no purpose in regular play. Using Trick Balls on the enemy lowered its defense, allowing me to deal the finishing blow as Luffy.

This is an example of Odyssey?? encouraging me to play with its systems, to find the synergies that I would otherwise ignore. It's a common game design tactic, but a playful and effective one. More importantly, it would have had absolutely no impact if I had just been auto-battling up to that point.

The case for auto-battle

Let me clarify something: those challenges I was talking about are optional. If I wanted to, I could have left Luffy out of that fight entirely. There's no punishment for failing those mini-tasks, and the rewards are pretty meaningless after the first couple of hours. I enjoy playing with these systems because I already like Odyssey's combat. And I am not everybody.

[caption id="attachment_358473" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

There are those for whom all of this will sound very tedious. If you can just muscle through without paying attention to all the interlocking systems, without thinking about character positions or type advantages, why would you expend the extra brainpower just to beat an ostensibly pointless challenge? I understand this philosophy entirely, and I'm glad that auto-battle is there for people who feel this way. One Piece Odyssey has a lot of great stuff to offer for both long-time One Piece fans and total newcomers, and it would be a huge bummer if people ?were locked out of that stu?ff by a combat system that they find boring.

But if you think you're the kind of person who will bounce off of Odyssey's combat, I implore you to at least give it a try. There's more to it than you might have guessed, and while it doesn't demand a lot of attention, it d??oes benefit from it.

The post You might want to avoid One Piece Odyssey’s auto-battle appeared first on Destructoid.

Buckle up, we're talking about anime

When I hear that a new game is coming based on a popular shonen anime or manga, I tend to assume that we're getting another fighting game that I'll forget about within a week. I can only assume that every Naruto fan is a pro-level arena fighting game player at this point, given the number of Ninja Storm games they've been faced with. One Piece: Burning Blood, Dragon Ball FighterZ, My Hero One's Justice, the ill-fated Jump Force �it seems to me that when you make a game based on a hit an?ime, the obvious move is to go for a fighting game.

Some of them are good, some of them? are not, b??ut boy... are there a lot of them.

[caption id="attachment_357691" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Bandai Namco[/caption]

It makes sense; these are usually franchises with a roster of fighters boasting a variety of recognizable signature moves, and fans are always clamoring for pointless power comparisons between any two given characters. If you really want an answer to the age-old debate of "SSJ3 Goku vs. Bardock," all you need to do is look at a FighterZ tier list. But you know?? what genre can do all of that just a little bit better? Role-playing games.

Put your nose to the grindstone

The RPG, in its most primitive form, is a genre about getting buff. It's about starting off as a capable fighter and slowly evolving into a formidable warrior. Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest �?all of these games fall under the same genre grouping primarily because the?y let the player grow stronger over time.

A couple months back, I went on a pretty severe Dragon Ball bender. I read all 500-odd chapters of the original manga in the space of about a week before I turned my attention to the wide world of Dragon Ball video games, starting with 2019's action RPG Dragon Ball Z Kakarot. This is where I made a discovery that seems all too obvious in retrospect: at least since Raditz crashed in Goku's backyard, Dragon Ball has been the story of a guy playing an RPG.

[caption id="attachment_357694" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Bandai Namco[/caption]

Kakarot isn't the first game to invite this comparison, and there have been Dragon Ball RPGs in the past, but it stands true. Goku grinds his way from "unusually strong kid" to "god-battling superhero". What are Dragon Ball Z's frequent training montages if not level-up fanfare? This is why Kakarot, a 7/10 by most measures (see Chris Carter's review), is a near-perfect Dragon Ball adaptation.

The life of the party

Recently, after running out of halfway-decent Dragon Ball stuff to submerge myself in, I've begun tackling a more daunting task: reading One Piece for the first time. It's a much larger project than reading Dragon Ball, but I'm about 600 chapters in, and when I heard the elevator pitch for the upcoming One Piece Odyssey, I was elated. The game is a party-based RPG, and I truly can't think of a better way to adapt One Piece.

Dragon Ball Z is somewhat unique in that its fights are usually one-on-one, and its heroes are basically all brute-force punchy-boys (aside from Bulma, who really should be playable in more games). One Piece is the opposite. Certain characters may break off for the occasion??al side quest, but the Straw Hat Pirates are an RPG party if I've ever seen one. They'??ve got a healer, a bard, a thief, a handful of specialized fighters, a rubber person �you know, the classics.

[caption id="attachment_357697" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Bandai Namco[/caption]

After I got over the initial excitement I felt at the idea of a One Piece RPG (not the first one and likely not the last), I realized that a lot of shonen series feature RPG parties. Naruto might be grinding his way to Hokage-dom, but he's doing it with a lot of buddies at his side. Those lads from Demon Slayer are always fighting in little crews. The superheroes in My Hero Academia get Avengers moments every other chapter. Fairy Tail recently drew this comparison for me with its own party-based RPG, although I can't speak to the quality of that one since I haven't watched an episode of Fairy Tail in around a decade.

But what else?

The point is, all of these massive rosters, that already make fighting games such a good template for shonen adaptations, would also make for pretty interesting RPG parties. Most of those characters are steadily upgrading their powers all the time anyways. Some of these properties already have built-in levels, like One Piece's bounties. Maybe it's easier to drop anime characters into fighting games. I've never done it. But I have played those games, and I can pro??udly say that I'd like most of them a lot more if they were RPGs.

So in recent years, we've gotten RPG adaptations of Dragon Ball Z and Fairy Tail, as well as some Sword Art Online games that I don't feel extremely qualified to comment on. With a release scheduled for tomorrow, we'll finally get to check out One Piece Odyssey for ourselves. But what other serie??s deserve the RPG treatment? Should Denji, Power, and Aki be the new Cloud, Barret, and Tifa? You tell me.

And ma??ybe we can ch?ill out with all those fighting games, if you don't mind.

Related: One P??iece Odyssey suffers from a lack of difficulty that leaves the gameplay stretched thin on Gamepur

The post Anime & RPGs: The perfect power couple appeared first on Destructoid.

Save data will be transferable to the full game

Bandai Namco's shonen RPG One Piece Odyssey goes live a week from now. But if you can't wait that long, there's also a demo arriving for One Piece Odyssey next week to tide you over until launch.

Producer Katsuaki Tsuzuki announced in a new video today that a One Piece Odyssey demo will go live on January 10, jus??t ahead of its January 13 launch date.

The demo will cover roughly the first couple hours of One Piece Odyssey, and save data from the demo will transfer over to the full game. It will follow Luffy and the crew washing up on the island where Odyssey takes place, ??coming face-to-face with new obstacles to overcome, and likely pl??enty of RPG battles.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bBWs1dYFwk

Tsuzuki says the demo will highlight specific parts of what makes Odyssey a bit different, including its RPG bend towards tactical battles rather than action-heavy fights. The pro??ducer does note that since RPGs tend to have various elements unlock gradually over time, not all of the features can be discovered in the demo version.

Specifically, the memory worlds shown so far won't be in the demo. These are areas that let the Straw Hat Pirates revisit pieces of their past, going back to old memories of places to relive them. Those will be available after the d??emo version.

Setting sail

While it's a short span of time between demo and launch, this is at least a good chance to try out One Piece Odyssey to see if it's for you. While One Piece is no stranger to more action-oriented adaptations, Odyssey dives into the realm of RPGs. It's an interesting twist, and one that actually has me—an anime and RPG fan who doesn't normally vibe with One Piece—fairly interested.

The chance to try it out will arrive on January 10. Otherwise, One Piece Odyssey sets off on January 13 for PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, and Xb??ox Series X|S.

The post One Piece Odyssey is getting?? a demo just before its launch date appeared first on Destructoid.

A battle for every area

Bandai Namco Entertainment has put out a new gameplay showcase for One Piece Odyssey, where we get a good glimpse of? how the Straw Hat Pirates fight?? their turn-based RPG battles.

Before the fighting starts, we do get a look at the locale for the new adventure. One Piece Odyssey follows Monkey D. Luffy and the crew in a journ??ey after they're ship??wrecked at sea.

In the trailer today, we see the city of Alabasta and some of the locales the pirates will run through. Each character has an overworld ability, allowing them to??? access certain areas or take advantage of certain resources. From being stretchy or handy with a slingshot to just being small, everyone has their own talent for navigating the island.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcBzN-BymKg

All's fair in turn-based battles

Once the fighting starts, the crew dukes it out in a traditional RPG style. It's got a traditional vibe to it, with a little bit of One Piece style.

It looks like one of Odyssey's battle mechanics is the scramble area battle, where characters are placed in different zones to duke it?? out. Some characters are able to attack other areas from long-range, and it looks like fighters can also move from one area to another one their own is clear.

Basically, an all-out brawl. But with type effectiveness and other factors in play, it seems like an interesting battle? system that could make for fun combat encounters. I dig the idea of the crew getting split and having to fight their way back together. Plus, there are some conditions called Dramatic Scenes that give extra rewards for clearing them.

I'm not a huge One Piece fan, but this look at the battle set-up has me intrigued. We'll see how Luffy and the crew's battles turn out in this new RPG when One Piece Odyssey launches for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on January 13, 2023.

The post One Piece Odyssey highlights its battles and overworld actions in new?? gameplay appeared first on Destructoid.

The Straw Hat Pirates set out for a new adventure

Bandai Namco Entertainment has locked in a release date for One Piece Odyssey. The RPG based on the mass?ive manga series will set sail on January 13, 2023.

Previously, One Piece Odyssey was going to set sail sometime this year. Today at the Tokyo Game Show 20?22, Bandai Namco moved that target just a hair int??o the new year.

One Piece Odyssey producer Katsuaki Tsuzuki explains in a new video message that while the team originally targeted this year, launching in January gi??ves them more time in production and brushing ?up the quality of the RPG.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHXtyxULPX0

Today's release date announcement trailer lays out the story of the new adventure. The Straw Hat crew h?eads?? to new shores, where they encounter a mysterious new character and get tangled up in a little more than they might have bargained for. This new adventure will touch on "classic memories" of the Straw Hat Pirates as well.

A pirate RPG

While the look of One Piece Odyssey definitely seems like it's locked in, the other appealing factor is that this is an RPG. Rather than more action-oriented games that have rolled out for other manga adaptations, One Piece Odyssey is a role-playing game.

Hopefully we'll get to see more of the battle system ahead of launch, as we've only seen a few snippets up to this point. But the U??I style, as well as the general look of the game, all seem really great.

Plus, for the heavy One Piece fans out there, Odyssey is getting a tie-in statue that looks rad.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ab4PwRZ9UQ

One Piece Odyssey sets off for PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam on January 13, 2023.

The post One ?Piece Odyssey charts a course for January 2023 appeared first on Destructoid.

It's an arrr-PG

Bandai Namco is showing a bit more of the battle side of its upcoming One Piece Odyssey. The role-playing game based on hit manga One Piece is launching sometime this year, and it ??certainly has some RPG syste??ms in place.

When the new One Piece game was first revealed, it definitely had some RPG vibes. Some new screenshots from the Japanese One Piece Odyssey site (as spotted by RPG Site) really emphasize just how it's ta??ckling battles?, though.

There's HP and TP, as well as a weapon triangle of sorts. There are definitely some Persona vibes to the UI ele??ments ?here, and I think they actually work pretty well.

Another screens??hot, shown above, also highlights some positioning mechanics. It looks like range and position on the field wi??ll be important too.

Other screenshots show different members of the Straw Hat Pirates? using their various abilities to navigate the environment. From slicing a gate in half to seemingly flying across the map, it looks like overworld traversal mechanics will play a role too.

Straw hat life

I am, admittedly, not a huge follower of One Piece. I've dug other Shonen Jump series like Jujutsu Kaisen and My Hero Academia, but never taken the dive on One Piece, due in large part to?? just how lengthy it is. My backlog is already gigantic.

That said, these screenshots are making a pretty good case for checking out One Piece Odyssey. While anime spinoffs usually veer into fighting games or other action-oriented formats, RPGs are relatively unexplored territory. Bandai Namco seems to really be going for a full-on RPG with One Piece Odyssey though, with screenshots more evocative of Persona and the Atelier series.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=yogS2oJ2pZI

No firm date's been set yet, but One Piece Odyssey is due out sometime this year for ??PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PS5.

The post New One Piece Odyssey screenshots show off ??its RPG battles appeared first on Destructoid.